UNE a national leader in research commercialisation

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UNE a national leader in research commercialisation

The University of New England has been ranked among the country’s top sandstone universities in a national survey that measures dollars earned from research commercialisation.

The University of New England has been ranked among the country’s top sandstone universities in a national survey that measures dollars earned from research commercialisation.

The national survey of research commercialisation, conducted by the Federal Government’s Commercialisation Institute, lists UNE together with Monash University, the University of Queensland, CSIRO, and Melbourne University as one of Australia’s top five generators of commerialised research revenue.

With $6.8 million in earnings from commercialised research, the University of New England beats research giant, University of Melbourne ($6m), and is ranked well ahead of the State’s biggest university, UNSW ($3.5m).

UNE’s Vice-Chancellor and CEO, Professor Alan Pettigrew, said the result was in large part attributable to the commercialisation of animal genetics research outcomes at the university’s Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI), and served to highlight UNE’s research strengths – particularly in the area of rural science, a core focus for the University.

“UNE has enjoyed the benefits from this synergy between research production and commercialisation for a number of years now,” Professor Pettigrew said.

“UNE’s core focus is on rural and inland regional issues, and our strengths in the sciences have always been in rural science and land-based agriculture,” he said, “so it’s great that the commercialisation of UNE research in this field continues to achieve great outcomes.”

Professor Pettigrew commended Professor Ray Cooksey, UNE’s Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and the University’s Research Services team for their assistance in achieving these great outcomes for UNE.

The Managing Director of ABRI, Dr Arthur Rickards OAM, said ABRI, a controlled entity of UNE, had achieved commercialisation of beef genetic technologies in 14 countries, including Argentina, the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and the UK.

“This performance has been made possible by the very high quality of UNE research that underpins the beef genetic products,” Dr Rickards said, adding that UNE’s Animal Science, the Animal Genetics & Breeding Unit, and the Beef CRC had all contributed to an outstanding result.

The Chancellor of UNE, Dr Richard Torbay (pictured here), said the ranking was a significant achievement for the University of New England, and a real indication of UNE’s research strengths.

“UNE’s ranking among Australia’s top universities goes to show that, even by comparison with much larger institutions like the University of Melbourne and the University of NSW, UNE is certainly capable of punching well above its weight,” Dr Torbay said.

The University of New England respects and acknowledges that its people, programs and facilities are built on land, and surrounded by a sense of belonging, both ancient and contemporary, of the world's oldest living culture. In doing so, UNE values and respects Indigenous knowledge systems as a vital part of the knowledge capital of Australia.